Flip the script on your limiting beliefs: here's what you need to know.

Limiting beliefs hold us back from achieving our full potential.

Whether it's recovering from injury (which I see daily at the clinic) or achieving work or life goals, these pesky roadblocks get in the way of our success.

By overcoming these 4 common challenges, we can reframe our limiting beliefs to remove those limits.

1. Resistance to Change

The resistance is real.

Like our bodies, our brains crave homeostasis, a state of balance. When we actively challenge our long-held beliefs, we upset this equilibrium.

This brings on discomfort, designed to make us take notice and restore our comfortable status quo.

If we don't recognize this discomfort as a sign we're moving forward, it's very easy to revert back to what we've always known.

2. Fear of Failure

We constantly assess risk-benefit by creating potential scenarios of possible outcomes in our minds.

Some of these outcomes are the worst-case scenarios: the big mistakes and ugly failures...

...and even in our imagination, these sting.

So to protect ourselves, we don't take the chance of letting them come to life — this is how fear of failure stops us from even trying.

By recognizing these fear-based beliefs are misplaced and by taking action in spite of this fear, we'll be able to reframe them.

3. Lack of Self-Awareness

One of the toughest challenges to reframe limiting beliefs is not being aware of them.

If these beliefs run like an automatic script in our subconscious, they're virtually impossible to shift.

This is why actions like working with a coach or journaling become important to bring these hidden patterns to our conscious where we're able to change them.

Once we know what we're dealing with, we can deal with it.

4. Negative Self-Talk

This one is especially insidious.

We often use negative self-talk without even realizing it.

Putting ourselves down, even in jest, when we mess up or make mistakes....

...using words like stupid, idiot, screw up — unknowingly feeding into the erosion of our self-worth and esteem.

By catching the words our inner voice uses in our inner dialogue, we can replace the language with one that's more compassionate and forgiving

To flip the script and remove the limits, we must recognize these four obstacles standing in our way of reframing our beliefs.